Train Officials to Face Metrolink Crash Survivors

Today's the day. Survivors and families of victims of the 2008 Chatsworth Metrolink train crash finally get to meet the head of the company who employed the engineer.

Don Saunders, rail division chief operating officer for Veolia Transportation stood them up in January.

He will be joined by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley and Keith Millhouse, immediate past president of the Metrolink Board of Directors, at a closed-door meeting in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Star. The Sept. 12, 2008, Metrolink crash killed 25 people and injured more than 100 others. Veolia provided Metrolink train operators.

This will be the arranged to bring Veolia and crash victims together. The French conglomerate was expected to come to a meeting scheduled for Jan. 28,  but failed to attend, according to the Star.

“This is the largest company of its kind, and no one was available to come today?” Gallegly said then.

Most of those killed in the accident lived in Ventura County, according to the Associated Press. Simi Valley resident Jenny Fuller lost her husband, Walt Fuller, 56, in the accident. “We were supposed to meet with Veolia, but they are hiding behind the law,” she said. No amount of money can compensate for her husband's death, she told the Star.

Veolia representatives said they could not meet with victims on Feb. 7 because they were waiting for U.S. District Judge George H. Wu to finalize a $200 million crash settlement.

Wu approved the settlement fund last week, according to the Associated Press. But while $200 million is a substantial amount of money, Gallegly told the Star, “There are young folks who are going to have to pay millions in medical costs for the rest of their lives.” For example, he said that one crash victim had had a portion of her brain removed, and every spinal bone of a young man had been broken.

The Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 set the $200 million cap. It was passed to help the struggling U.S. railroads. But “it wasn’t intended for foreign entities,” Gallegly said, adding that the cap had not been adjusted for rising medical costs and inflation.

To compensate, Gallegly to create a $500 million cap before the last Congress adjourned in December, but the bill died. Gallegly had then refiled the bill with a $275 million cap. The cap would apply to cases in which gross negligence could be proved. It would also be retroactively applied to the Metrolink crash.

Wu's order to establish the fund came a month after he released Metrolink and Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of Veolia, from further liability, the AP reported.

The case is still pending, according to the AP, and there is disagreement over whether or not a higher cap amount will be set.

"Until the judge assigns each victim X amount and everyone is paid, it's not over," Mark Hiepler, an attorney representing 19 of the victims said. "In the interim, should the bill get passed, there may be another legal maneuver to interrupt the case."

"All the issues have been resolved, and the cap has been paid," railroad attorney Paul R. Kiesel told the AP. "The claim is over."

Gallegly's spokesman, Tom Pfeifer, had said he wasn't aware of the latest development in the case and couldn't comment on how it could affect the bill.

The case will move to state court, where a judge is expected to hear testimony from victims next month and decide how to divide the money.

Federal investigators blame the Metrolink crash on Connex engineer Robert Sanchez. Sanchez had been text messaging on his cell phone at the time, missed a red-light signal and crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train.